After 40: Hurricanes 2 – Bruins 0

BOSTON — Joni Pitkanen gave the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead after firing a slap shot past Tuukka Rask glove side — one that the Bruins netminder should have stopped — but the most talked about moment of the period happened in what Jack Edwards would like to call a “donnybrook”. Here are a few notes from the middle stanza.

In somewhat similar fashion from the Montreal game last February here at the TD Garden the Bruins got into their first scrum of the year highlighted by Zdeno Chara and Jay Harrison. Chara was called for an instigator during the scrum and got in the face of Cam Ward after his fight, while Rask tried to challenge the ‘Canes netminder to drop the gloves, but he wouldn’t oblige. The Bruins had to kill a 5-on-3 (served by Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton) and a Dennis Seidenberg intereference call shortly after, but were able to prevent Carolina from increasing its lead.

The Bruins power(less) play continues to sputter. Joe Corvo, who returned to the ice after taking a hit from Brandon Sutter in the first period, had the team’s best chance with the man advantage late in the second period as his shot hit iron. For that matter, the Bruins have hit at least three or four posts that i know of.

Maybe the “donnybrook” will help settle things down a bit. The Bruins have not been too crisp with their chances and whenever they have a scoring opportunity they aren’t using it to their fullest. Maybe they didn’t need to wait to play a rival like Toronto or Montreal for the first time this year. A lot remains to be seen however.